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| St. Joan of Valois at Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, Paris, France. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen |
History
Because Saint Joan of Valois was a princess of France, she was engaged to be married when she was only two months old! Joan had a happy childhood, but she had to get married when she was 12. Her husband, who was 14, didn’t want her because she walked with a limp and wasn’t pretty, but he was afraid to back out of the marriage. After the deaths of Joan's father and brother, her husband became king and she became queen of France. Her husband immediately went to the pope to have their marriage declared null. Joan didn’t like this, but she accepted the pope’s ruling because she knew she was supposed to start a monastery. She called it the Order of the Annunciation, because she wanted to respond to every difficulty as the Blessed Mother had, “Be it done unto me according to Your will.”
Activity
Because Saint Joan of Valois was used to royal life, she had some trouble leading the monastery. She would get impatient with the nuns when they didn’t make progress as quickly as she wanted them to. Do you ever get impatient with other people? Today, make a commitment to pray the Hail Mary every time you feel impatient with somebody. You might have to pray it more than once in order to start feeling the grace to be patient, but you will!
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